With its forty-five chorale preludes, the Orgelbüchlein bears witness to a mastery of the art of improvisation on the organ, as the congregation heard it at the time before singing the hymn in its turn. It was a tempting experiment to revive this primary function: by collaborating with the combined forces of the Ensemble Vocal Bergamasque and the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, Benjamin Alard gives the "little organ book" its full significance and expressive power. © harmonia mundi

Released in 2008, Wettsingen in Schwetzingen is a unique MTV Unplugged album: it acts as a singing contest between German soul singer Xavier Naidoo and the band he formed and still records with, Sohne Mannheims. Recorded at the Rococo Theatre at Schwetzingen Castle, Germany, the two-disc, 25-track list features acoustic performances of both acts' biggest hits, including "Babylon System," "Fuhr Mich ans Licht," and "Wenn Du Schlafst." The German number one album also includes appearances by Cassandra Steen, Daniel Stoyanov, and Azad. © Jon O'Brien /TiVo

As in his previous volumes of Bach cantatas in this series, John Eliot Gardiner brings a velvet-gloved, yet iron-fisted approach to Bach. His tempos are supple and his lines are radiant, but the singleness of vision and strength of will are inflexible. As always, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists are both formally and expressively under his firm control. This doesn't mean Gardiner won't allow his vocal soloists considerable interpretive leeway. Soprano Gillian Keith and bass Peter Harvey are marvelously free in the duet between the Soul and Jesus in Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn (Walk the Path of Faith) (BWV 152). But the musical context is wholly Gardiner's. The packaging and production values are, as always, superlative. Recorded live in St. Bartholomew's in New York on the Sunday after Christmas, December 31, 2000, the sound here is ideally balanced, perfectly clear, and utterly natural. Unlike most volumes in this series, however, this is a single-disc package, and so it makes a good introduction to both Bach's cantatas and to Gardiner's approach to them for buyers who would like to test the waters without investing too much money. © TiVo

Download not available

Composed around 1716 and named after the friend and contemporary of Handel's who penned its texts, Hamburg poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes, Handel's passion oratorio, Der für die Sünde der Welt gemarterte und Sterbende Jesus, was one of only two projects he set to German texts after his move to London in 1712. A free paraphrasing of the Passion narrative, drawing on all four gospels, in musical terms its fresh interests come thick and fast: a three-part opening Sinfonia which shares material with Handel's Opus 3 Concerto in G Major; 28 arias, two duets and a trio ranging from warm serenity to impassioned outbursts; plus various choruses and chorales. All of which means that it's music ripe with potential to be leaping out of the stereo from end to end, which is exactly what we have here from this performance from Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo, captured with crisp naturalness at St Jude's Church. To begin with Arcangelo themselves, listen to the sudden theorbo swing one minute into the opening Sinfonia at the metre change, and you'll have the measure of these fleetfootedly joyous, brightly crisp instrumental ensemble performances. Then there's the vocal line-up, because if it weren't enough to have soprano Sandrine Piau as the Daughter of Zion, tenor Stuart Jackson as Evangelist and baritone Konstantin Krimmel as Jesus, look at the vocal consort and there's sopranos Mhairi Lawson and Mary Bevan, altos Alex Potter and David Allsopp, tenors Matthew Long and Andrew Tortise, baritone Marcus Farnsworth and bass William Gaunt. It's hard to pick highlights. However Krimmel's sombre accompagnato Ist's möglich, das dein Zorn sich stille strikes for his sombre drama. Then there's the clean-toned tender beauty of Piau's Brich, mein Herz, zerfliess in Tränen, supported by theorbo fabulously out in front in the balance, and delicate upper strings. Or Mhairi Lawson's warmer tones over her short but very sweet Ich seh' an einen Stein gebunden, where an equal star of the show is Cohen's rippling harpsichord playing. Or lead violinist Michael Gurevich over Dem Himmel gleicht sein buntgefärbter Rücken, whether in his beautifully coloured and shaped solos spots where the engineering puts him satisfyingly right in the spotlight, or when he's sensitively dueting with Lawson, placed slightly further back. Handel vocal music at its finest. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz

CPO's Georg Philipp Telemann: Christmas Oratorio consists of three choral works that come from the last part of Telemann's voluminous oeuvre. The oratorio Die Hirten an der Krippe zu Bethlehem ("The Shepherds at the Crib of Bethlehem") dates from 1759 and has a libretto by poet Karl Wilhelm Ramler, who also contributed the text to Telemann's great masterwork Die Auferstehung und Himmerfahrt Jesu. It is a short oratorio, and CPO has filled out the disc with a pair of Christmas cantatas that post-date it, Siehe, ich verkündige Euch (1761) and Der Herr hat offenbaret (1762). When Telemann composed the last of these cantatas, he was 81 years of age! Listeners who are familiar with the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach will find Telemann's work in this genre comparatively clear of Bach's busy counterpoint and a little closer to the vein of Handel, but also not like him. Although Telemann often recycled cantata texts, he seldom saw the need to reuse musical themes as did Bach. Telemann's seemingly inexhaustible supply of compelling melodic ideas is astounding in the pieces heard here, especially when one considers that at this point he was well past composing his 3,000th work. Although the music makes for pleasant, even somewhat easy, listening apart from the words, once one delves into the cantata texts the listener gets a sense of how well the music fits them. The harmonic coloring of Der Herr hat offenbaret, which is a little darker in tone than the other two, is an aspect of the music that becomes additionally moving as the performance unfolds. These performances are led, and the editions made, by harpsichordist Ludger Rémy, who has done a lot to revive Telemann works that are unknown. The soloists are very good, particularly bass-baritone Klaus Mertens in the oratorio. For some reason the opening of Die Hirten an der Krippe zu Bethlehem is a little tenuous and tepid, but about 10 minutes in the disc takes off and is of consistent excellence to the end. For those who already know some of Telemann's sacred music, Georg Philipp Telemann: Christmas Oratorio will prove a delight, and to others seeking an introduction to it this is a good place to start. However, for those who are just seeking a novel bit of Christmas music to vary the Yuletide diet, this is an excellent choice; from the very first notes on the disc it is immediately apparent that this is Christmas music even if one has never heard it, and has no idea who or what it is. © TiVo

This recording showed up on classical best-seller charts in the autumn of 2023, and it may have been a surprise to see it there. The music is by Ludwig Daser, an almost unknown German Renaissance composer, and while Cinquecento is an esteemed vocal group specializing in the music of the period, it is not commonly a chart resident. Several factors may have drawn listeners to the recording, not least the terrific cover art featuring a painting of a Munich court jester with a lion (there is also a beautiful illustration with one of the original choirbooks). There is also the fact that Daser, the predecessor of Orlande de Lassus at the Bavarian court in Munich, is all but unknown; listeners will be glad to discover him. He did not have the wide-ranging genius of Lassus, but his music, like that of Tallis and Byrd, reflected the shifts of the age between Catholicism and Protestantism. The program here presents a good overview, with an imposing, rather conservative but ingenious Missa Pater noster (it is based on one chant, but another one is worked into the all-important Credo). There are also small, intimate motets in German and an alternatim hymn setting. The small Cinquecento group (mostly two voices per part) works quite well in these but seems underpowered in the mass; sources of the day specify at least a dozen singers, more likely 16, and up to 24 at the Sistine Chapel, which would have furnished a sound ideal. Nevertheless, the singing is clear and brings out the polyphonic details in a complex piece like Fracta diuturnis. A release of great interest to lovers of the eventful 16th century.© James Manheim /TiVo

Download not available

Maybe the combination of Brahms and Bruckner with the British choir Tenebrae sounds a little strange: the choir has specialized in Renaissance music and generally in music built on that sound ideal. Maybe the combination of the abstract, devout, and technically demanding Bruckner with the friendly and humanist Brahms sounds a little strange, too. But it all works out very nicely. In the 19th century, when choral music was a bigger part of everyday musical life than it is now, this would have been a program any good municipal choir would have loved to present. And Tenebrae bulks up its style a bit. They hit Bruckner's punishing high notes with the requisite perfect chill, and you can sample one of the large motets at the beginning, such as Ecce sacerdos (track three), for the full range of this choir's remarkable technical control under director Nigel Short. In Brahms pieces like the familiar "How lovely are thy dwellings" from the German Requiem, Op. 45 (track 11), the choir might even be called unusually weighty. Signum hits the ball out of the park sonically with engineering work at London's Temple Church, and the end result is a satisfying and unusual choral disc. A substantial donation from each copy of this album sold goes to Macmillan Cancer Support.© TiVo

Masaaki Suzuki's Bach organ recordings, something of a labor of love after the completion of his magisterial cantata cycle, have been well-received; this one landed on classical best-seller charts in early 2024. It is the second of a pair recorded on a 1737 organ at the Stiftskirche St. Georg in Grauhof, Lower Saxony, Germany. The builder was Christoph Treutmann, one of the greats of the age, and if it is not an organ Bach played, it is certainly one he would have regarded as state-of-the-art. Both this release and its predecessor, Vol. 4 in Suzuki's series, feature intricate chorale settings from the Orgelbüchlein, played on this organ and tied to the liturgical year; this volume features chorales for Easter (and the album was released just in time for that holiday) along with other settings and a few framing preludes and fugues. Suzuki on the organ is recognizably the same musician who led the Bach Collegium Japan on his famed cantata recordings; he is lofty, precise, and warm. The Treutmann organ is ideal for both the repertory and the performer; in many registrations it has an edgy, rather acid sound that clarifies Bach's complex polyphony beautifully. Also, sample the double setting of "Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier," with its contrasting textures. The BIS label's well-known engineering expertise is applied profitably to this small German church on a recording that one suspects Bach would have greatly admired.© James Manheim /TiVo